Polar Bears, fragrant and prickly,crouch in the coldlistening for the echoof flute notes in crystal caves.Fiercely, fiercely bread bakesdefying the bitter stingof tule fog.Follow the riversfollow their floating trails of sycamore leaves and orange blossoms.One river flows west.One river flows south.Crashing together, a joyful tumble.Saint Francis is beckoning:he will take you all the way to … Continue reading Animals in Winter: as large as fog, as warm as bread
Written with the prompts: a game you see, celebrate, shut it down, pleasure, beans for dinner, friends of friends, especially the pants, jumped into Gary’s lap, if you start now, this old lamp, stranger with no hat, she had two sons, good girl with bad habits, as the door opened she knew, Mommy’s candy, green bird … Continue reading Two Suns
The new year feels like a mistake waiting to happen, a haircut with bangs that are too short, the wrong lipstick, a red that’s too blue, when it should be orange. And I wonder: is this the face I want to present to the world/in a new year? January yawns open, a classroom with dark and heavy … Continue reading New Year
Every week when Lindsay came home from the grocery store she’d find a special treat in her brown paper grocery sacks, a gift from the flirtatious bag boy who seemed to have a crush on her. The first week it was a package of Hostess pink snowballs, two round chocolate cakes with cream filing covered … Continue reading Gifted
A winter's poem I wrote a few decades ago. . . In Decemberthe sky darkened but a star cracked the blacknessto perch like a red bird on the waiting finger of an evergreen tree. Hiking through the field we knelt on damp leaves and knew: the Earth will heal herself. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Blessed … Continue reading Shepherd’s Story
Written with the prompts: in the autumn of life, hitch a ride home, how would she know to stop, orange, yellow, and deep blue red, the ocean waved, my home, difficult to resist, unspoken, in test after test, magical thinking, it looked something like this, cool as a cucumber, people come and people go, race of … Continue reading Orange, Yellow, and Deep Blue Red
This poem continues my theme of December oranges, but also serves as a holiday warning: don't let this season try your patience and drive you to exhaustion! Remember, the smartest thing to do on the longest night of the year is sleep. If I can pluck the moonfrom the sky I may find it’s no … Continue reading Don’t Eat the Moon
Every year on Pearl Harbor Day, I like to tell the story of my late mother, who was picking oranges with her best friend Louise on December 7th, 1941, when they got the news that the Japanese had bombed the US Naval Base in Hawaii. Every year after, she picked the first orange of the … Continue reading Juicy
I feel it would be disingenuous this year to post my usual affirmation of hoped-for abundance and gratitude for blessings when so many people here in our own country are suffering. I myself am at a place in life where I am truly content with all I have and at peace about all I do not … Continue reading Thanksgiving 2025
Written with the prompts: book on the table, the dead refuse to talk, floating on a star, Mickey a good surgeon, morning routine, Natalie was bored with it all, only energy, silly like that, strawberries, went to see the orphan lambs, what normal looks like, Henry quite damp, two things a day, one big green … Continue reading Only Energy
